Ichibei Benkei
( |birthday = September 7th |age = 31 |gender = Male |height = "6'2" |weight = 167lbs |eyes = Brown |hair = Black |blood type = O+ |affiliation = Soul Searcher's |previous affiliation = None |occupation = Substitute Shinigami |previous occupation = Student of Tokyo University |team = Ashita |previous team = None |partner = None |previous partner = Siegfried Schwartz |base of operations = Nakajima Island - Human World |marital status = None |alignment = Good |relatives = Maito Kurosaki (Mother) Mitsuhide Ichibei (Father) |education = Tokyo University |status = Active |shikai = Tenchi Wareru |bankai = Tenchi Hananimoni Meru }} Ichibei Benkei (弁慶市兵衛, Benkei Ichibee) or Twinblade Benkei (ダブル剣, Daburuken Benkei) is a human who possesses shinigami powers. He is an ally of Soul Society and is a close friend and student of Jinbei Hitotsuboshi his teacher and mentor. He was also the childhood friend of Siegfried Schwartz and Great Grandson of Ichigo Kurosaki. He also entered Soul Society in the hopes to see his mothers soul, and consequently started another Ryoka invasion. Appearance Benkei has the appearance of a scruffy middle-aged man, with a thin beard and his hair tied into a knot. He is generally seen in his Shinigami uniform which is a blackish navy blue. When he was younger he had Ginger hair, which he repeatedly dyes so as to "fit in". He is incredibly muscular. During his youth he had ginger hair and freckles. Personality Benkei is quick to anger, but is generally very over-reactive, he frequently jokes around and is rarely seen without a smile. He dislikes people insulting his friends, family or his honor, he is also prone to becoming incredibly serious when in battle, but still smiles nonetheless. Benkei enjoys helping and protecting others weaker than himself, but is not one for fighting his battles for his friends if they can handle it on their own, despite the injuries that it may incur in doing so which contradicts his desire to protect his friends. Benkei is unusually patient, he can be usually found sitting and watching the cloud for hours on end during his spare time, when he is not doing his favorite hobby, fighting. He trains constantly and seeks to become the best swordsman that the world has ever seen, in Soul Society, Hueco Mundo and even the Human world and constantly seeks new opponents be they Captains, Arrancar, Vasto Lorde, Fullbringers or Quincy. His personality has changed dramatically from his youth, during his youth he frequently cried when bullied or when his best friend Siegfried got hurt defending him. During their adolescence Siegfried lost his parents and started to loathe Shinigami and threatened to kill and obliterate Benkei if their paths ever crossed again, both loving battle, their paths surely will. History Benkei's mother died when he was young as she protected him from a powerful Arrancar. It traumatized him deeply and his father was rarely ever around. During his childhood he made friends with Siegfried Schwartz and they often got bullied with Benkei crying while Siegfried fought the bullies, eventually Benkei came to love fighting and soon they both began to hold their own and never got bullied again. When Siegfried lost his parents to the hands of Shinigami when they reached their teens he became hate filled and ran away threatening to kill Ichibei if they met. Soon after this Ichibei found Jinbei Hitotsuboshi who began to mentor him after discovering his latent Shinigami potential. And soon found new friends and traveled to Soul Society to search for his mothers soul, incurring a Ryoka Invasion. After this he began to search for his mother in all of the realms and seek out working dueling opponents to fuel his lust for battle. Powers & Abilities Human Powers & Abilities Advanced Growth Rate: Having taken lessons of all schools of swordsmanship and mastered and beat the inventors and masters of the schools in duels in less than 7 years, is truly impressive, even more so when he accomplished all of this in his human form. Godlike Reflexes: Benkei stated one of the reasons he mastered all sword schools and accomplished so much was due to his monstrous reflexes, in his eyes even the fastest humans move at a snails pace. Shinigami Powers & Abilities Master Swordsman: Benkei is a masterful swordsman, able to fight evenly with his own master, and a excellent swordsman in his own right, Jinbei Hitotsuboshi. Benkei is regarded as one of the greatest swordsmen of this current generation of Shinigami. With only members of the Royal Guard, The 1st and 0 Espada, Leader of the New Visored, 1st Division Captain and the King of Hueco Mundo and his aide being superior in swordsmanship. Having never fought or witnessed Siegfried Schwartz' power for himself, it cannot be stated who is a superior swordsman. Benkei enjoys using two blades, but only on powerful opponents who are worth his time. Benkei has reputedly mastered all the schools of swordsmanship in the entirety of the human world, but prefers using his own mixed in with the other styles. He has invented a few sword techniques of his own. * : By quickly unsheathing and striking a foe and sheathing his sword Benkei can quickly cut down a foe. While this may seem to be an ordinary feat, the speed at which Benkei draws his sword and strikes his foe makes it seem like nothing but a blur to observers, seeing only the afterimage of the attack, hence the term "hollow" he can incorporate flash steps into the technique to cut through multiple foes in conjunction. The technique works by focusing large amounts of Reiryoku into the arms and front foot, and stepping forwards, but it also incorporates the similar movement of Shunpo, but only in the arms. * : Similar to the normal Hollow Edge, however this technique uses both swords but they aim for the edges of a foe, and strike and slightly different times, the wider area it covers along with the time delay make the technique difficult to block, depending on the opponents skill a second strike can be activate known as : this second attack involves bringing the two blades that cut the sides of the opponent back towards each other, joining at the middle swiftly cutting the opponent in half and sheathing them in the same movement, this is where the true lethality of the Twin Hollow Edge attack becomes apparent, the second strike is followed up in a similar manner to the first, but it is all one fluid movement and appears as though Benkei is sheathing his swords, which is what is accomplished with the addition of the second strike. Immense Spiritual Power: Benkei possesses a utterly monstrous Spiritual Power. It is more than double the level of a captain and can even make an opponent as powerful as Jinbei Hitotsuboshi stand in awe. For a reason unknown there are two types of power dwelling within Benkei and are stated to be of different qualities. His Spiritual power is said to be equal to the 3rd Espada, a remarkable feat, as they are the strongest group of Espada assembled in history. *'Novice Reiatsu Control': Benkei has poor Reiatsu control, although when exerted can distill nothing but fear in opponents and raw killing intent, it is still terrible and he has trouble controlling it and occasionally hurts others with it. Hakuda Expert: Benkei is not defenseless without his swords, and has trained himself rigorously in Hakuda to compensate for the possibility of his loss of swords. While not a favored method of combat, he can hold his own against Captain-level opponents. Shunpo Master: Benkei has mastered Shunpo. He only uses it to dodge can catch opponents by surprise, while not as gifted as his mentor Jinbei, or several Captains of the Gotei, he does without a doubt qualify for the prestige of being a master of Shunpo. Picking it up incredibly quickly, after seeing it once from his mentor, he cut his hat in half in one strike, an unprepared Jinbei was astounding at Benkei showing expert level proficiency after seeing Shunpo just once. He refined it to at least keep up with the fastest foes. Kido Practioner: Benkei stated he has little need for Kido, so created a Kido to gauge and find beings with high spiritual power so as to help him seek them out and judge their power. This is especially handy considering he struggles to sense most foes at a distance. Enhanced Speed: Due to his training with Jinbei and using Jinbei's gravity blade he is accustomed to moving quickly without the need for Shunpo. Immense Strength: Having clashed with Jinbei's "Heavy Blade" so many times, he was able to withstand 800,000 times the swords gravity impacting him and repelling it with even force, a feat few can accomplish. Although he said if it was any heavier he may have broken his wrist. Immense Durability: Having spent most of his life honing his body he has developed a powerful body, he stated that few opponents can kill him without releasing their true power. Many shinigami, including Jinbei have stated his pure Durability is utterly abnormal. Enhanced Endurance: Capable of withstanding great injuries and being brought to the brink of exhaustion, Benkei can continue to fight. Zanpakutō Tenchi Wareru (天地割れる, Heaven and Earth is Split): Unlike most Zanpakuto, Benkei has two Zanpakuto as separate entities, also Benkei cannot seal his Zanpakuto and as such his swords are constantly released, strangely they are not much different from a sealed sword, one blade is pitch black and possesses a large guard, and the other is pure white, and possesses no guard. The white blade represents Heaven, the Black blade represents Earth. Both spirits in his inner world appear to represent different parts of Benkei's soul and they constantly fight for domination, their desire is for Jinbei to use their abilities and not the other. Shikai * Shikai: Tenchi Wareru has no release command, as it is always released, one blade is shorter than the other and as such are used for different situations regardless if the abilities are being used. : Shikai Special Ability: Tenchi Wareru has two distinct abilities belonging to either of the blades, one blade attacks, and the other defends, although that does not mean that one is incapable of cutting a foe. The white blade is used for attack, and the black blade is for defense. :* : The power of heaven is used purely for attack, it purportedly has the power to break any defense and it is used for the purpose of vanquishing enemies, defensive Kido and abilities are negated but if the victim fails to use any of these they will suffer the full brunt of the attack, instead of just a portion of it should a defense be used. The Heaven zanpakuto stated that "The body is a defense, it protects the soul, the heart, the body and the mind, any defense will be wiped clean." ::* : This is a melee attack that forces white reiatsu to flow through it, it is stated to purify and vanquish a defense, the attack force it said to burn through foes, and being cut by it causes excruciating pain, this is the executioner of the heavens. ::* : A pure wave of light following the swing of the sword, this causes a powerful explosion upon impact negating even the power of Danku and any other defense and wiping it away. This is said to be the retribution of heaven. :* : The power of earth is used solely for defense, while still able to cut and strike foes (although not nearly possessing the same startling attack power of Heaven) the sword forces a black reiatsu to encompass the blade, it gives the wielder the power to negate any attack its only purpose is to protect the wielder, its power is able to negate the effects of Jinbei's gravity blade when used at one million times its normal gravity, when Jinbei struck the blade he stated it was as though Benkei's "Daichi" negated the power of Jinbei's zanpakuto spirit itself and stopped it dead. ::* : The black reiatsu around the blade fluctuates and hardens on impact, this negates the attack power, and the special melee attributes of any offensive power even regular attacks. Once the attack connects the black reiatsu condences on the blade and encompasses the attacker. Even the force of an attack is negated. ::* : A pitch black wave of energy flows from the swing of Daichi, able to make any attack dissapear, although this attack can rarely harm enemies, long range attacks are completely erased upon collision, any pre-existing kido energy is also wiped clean, for example, if a fire-type zanpakuto created a myriad of fireballs, all would be negated in one swing, even if just the one is struck. The swing can also be manipulated into the form of a shield. Bankai * Bankai: : Pressing both blades together Benkei activates his Bankai, the original two blades become one single entity, a single sword and a suit of samurai armor, this emits a utterly gargantuan amount of reiatsu. The bankai produces so much power that Benkei rarely uses it in the human world, as it can cause souls and hollows from miles away enter a state of despair and fade to nothing. Benkei promised Soul Society he would never release it unless absolutely necessary, Benkei still has yet to master his bankai. Once used, Benkei himself wields the strongest sword and the strongest shield. Out of all shinigami, Benkei possesses one of the most formidable Zanpakuto. The Earth blade becomes the container for the Heaven blades utter power, as only its defensive shell can repel its power, and the white blade becomes Benkei's armor, acting as a shell to contain his defensive power. However their physical roles may be reversed, their powers are not. : Bankai Special Ability: Benkei's shikai is formidable, having a powerful attack and defense, but the Bankai maximizes both attack power and defense to the utmost extreme. Giving Benkei a variety of special abilities. ::* : This is the name of the technique that gives Benkei a suit of armor, it virtually makes him an "impenetrable defense" with his body becoming the Earth and the strongest shield, he is able to dispel any attack. It also gives him several unique physical abilities. :::* Hyper-Speed Combat: Benkei's armor magnifies his Shunpo, allowing him to surpass the boundaries of Shinigami speed. This is a result of the Armors greaves. :::* Enhanced Strength: The armor increases Benkei's strength massively, this is a result of the armors gauntlets. :::* Enhanced Durability: The armor increases Benkei's durability on a huge scale, being able to withstand repeated attacks from a Captains bankai with little damage. This is a result of the armors cuirass. :::* Enhanced Reflexes: The helmet improves Benkei's reflexes slightly, allowing him to keep up with his own movements. ::* : This gives Benkei his strongest attack force, the glowing black blade, encompassed in white energy has all of Benkei's power inside it, it has the ability to literally cut anything except another Zanpakuto. :::* : A passive ability that Benkei can choose to disable at will, this puts the full destructive force into Benkei's slashes, producing huge land altering explosions when he swings his sword. The purpose of this attack is to cause destruction to all of creation. :::* : This vertical slash splits both the heavens and earth, casing a huge fissure and anything in the way to get split down the middle. This is Benkei's fastest slash. The purpose of this attack is to cause cracks in all of creation. :::* : This is Benkei's strongest slash. Using the attack weakens Benkei greatly. By sheathing his sword and building power, he assumes the Iaido stance, and swings his blade and spins his feet to let the blade spin 360° and sheathe it once again. The cut literally divides the heavens and earth on the horizon, cutting the tops off mountains, cutting tall buildings and pillars. To bystanders it simply looks like everything was starting to float to the sky. It quite literally divides the Earth from the Heavens. The purpose of this attack is to finally separate creation, Benkei stated this attack is incomplete.